‘Round Midnight: Craft Plans ‘Miles ’56’ Box Commemorating Davis’ Banner Year
Following the previously released collections Miles ’54 and Miles ’55, Craft Recordings is continuing its survey of the early Miles Davis discography for a new installment. The sensibly-titled Miles ’56 is another archival dive into the Prestige Records catalogue as it chronicles a pivotal year in Davis’ musical history. It’s due on June 19 in 3CD, limited-edition 4LP, and digital formats (including hi-res audio) with all audio sourced from the original analog masters and restored using Plangent Processes.
Davis’ First Great Quintet – including tenor saxophonist John Coltrane, pianist Red Garland, bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Philly Joe Jones – recorded their debut for Prestige Records in November 1955 and kept busy throughout 1956 with a string of live dates across America including regular gigs at New York’s Café Bohemia. Their sets were varied, encompassing Davis originals (“Half Nelson,” “Four”), modern standards by their jazz contemporaries (Sonny Rollins’ “Oleo,” Ahmad Jamal’s “Ahmad’s Blues,” Thelonious Monk’s “Well You Needn’t”), and tried-and-true classics (Rodgers and Hart’s “My Funny Valentine,” Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “The Surrey with the Fringe on Top”). Davis was still under contract to Prestige when he inked his first deal with Columbia Records; Prestige founder Bob Weinstock had given the union his blessing, with Davis agreeing to play two lengthy sessions at Rudy Van Gelder’s studio in Hackensack, New Jersey which would provide the basis of numerous Prestige LPs to come.
The sessions took place on May 11 and October 26, 1956, and the quintet performed for the microphones as if for a live audience. They played the songs they had perfected onstage, and only needed a second take of one tune, Davis’ own “The Theme.” The other tracks laid down were all first takes from this group of already-seasoned yet still-young future legends. Four albums would arise from the two sessions: Cookin’ (1957), Relaxin’ (1958), Workin’ (1960), and Steamin’ (1961), all With the Miles Davis Quintet. One track, Monk’s “Round Midnight,” debuted in 1959 on the compilation LP Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants.
Miles ’56 rounds up both sessions as well as the March 16 date on which Davis was joined by Sonny Rollins (tenor saxophone), Tommy Flanagan (piano), Paul Chambers (bass), and Art Taylor (drums). Prestige captured what would be Davis’ final studio session with Rollins and his only one with Flanagan, during which time he performed two original compositions (“Vierd Blues,” “No Line”) and Dave Brubeck’s “In Your Own Sweet Way.” These tracks would appear on another compilation, Collectors’ Items, in 1956.
Though these dates closed the door on Davis’ affiliation with Prestige Records and he ascended to even greater heights at Columbia, these early recordings set the stage for those later triumphs. Audio for Miles ’56 has been mastered by Paul Blakemore, while lacquers were cut for the vinyl box by Kevin Gray at Cohearant Audio. Both the CD and LP editions, produced by Nick Phillips, include an essay by Ashley Kahn and track-by-track notes courtesy of the late Dan Morgenstern.
Look for both the 3CD and 4LP versions of Miles ’56 below. They’re due on June 19 from Craft Recordings. As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
Miles ’56: The Prestige Recordings (Craft Recordings, 2026)
3CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
4LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
CD 1/LP 1 + LP 2 Side C
- In Your Own Sweet Way (3/16/1956)
- No Line
- Vierd Blues
- In Your Own Sweet Way (5/11/1956)
- Diane
- Trane’s Blues
- Something I Dreamed Last Night
- It Could Happen to You
- Woody’N You
- Ahmad’s Blues
CD 2/LP 2 Side D + LP 3 Side E
- Surrey with the Fringe on Top
- It Never Entered My Mind
- When I Fall in Love
- Salt Peanuts
- Four
- The Theme (Take 1)
- The Theme (Take 2)
- If I Were a Bell
- Well, You Needn’t
CD 3/LP 3 Side F + LP 3
- ’Round Midnight
- Half Nelson
- You’re My Everything
- I Could Write a Book
- Oleo
- Airegin
- Tune Up
- When Lights Are Low
- Blues by Five
- My Funny Valentine
CD 1, Tracks 1-3 released on Collectors’ Items – Prestige PRLP 7044, 1956
CD 1, Tracks 4, 6 and 10; CD 2, Tracks 2 and 5-7 and CD 3, Track 2 released as Workin’ with The Miles Davis Quintet – Prestige PRLP 7166, 1960
CD 1, Tracks 5 and 7 and CD 2, Tracks 1, 3-4 and 9 released as Steamin’ with The Miles Davis Quintet – Prestige PRLP 7200, 1961
CD 1, Tracks 8-9; CD 2, Track 8 and CD 3, Tracks 3-5 released as Relaxin’ with The Miles Davis Quintet – Prestige PRLP 7129, 1958
CD 3, Track 1 released on Miles Davis and The Modern Jazz Giants – Prestige PRLP 7150, 1959
CD 3, Tracks 6-10 released as Cookin’ with The Miles Davis Quintet – Prestige PRLP 7094, 1957
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Nobody asked me, but I kinda hope they go back a year or two. Prestige’s first 12″ LPs were made by haphazardly combining bits of 10″ LPs and 7″ EPs. The Miles ’54 set did an invaluable service by untangling that mess. I’d love it if they did a similar thing for his first three years on the label.